The New Show That is "Charles Kuralt meets Jackass"

GQ _talks to Boston journalist Geoff Edgers about exploring the wild things Americans do for entertainment in his new Travel Channel series, _Edge of America

In the first two episodes of Travel Channel’s new show Edge of America, which airs Saturdays at 2, host Geoff Edgers castrates a calf, eats a still-beating snake heart, races a Model-T Ford while holding a pig, and delights in the gustatory pleasure of a recently deep-fried bull testicle. But while Edgers may show a certain degree of reckless disregard for his health and well being, the truth is that he’s not really your standard Johnny Knoxville type daredevil. He’s the Arts Entertainment reporter for the Boston Globe. The inspiration behind the show is that Edgers, a journalist for the last 20 years, wanted to get out from behind his desk and explore the things that were going on in places that aren’t New York or L.A. "We don’t make fun of people, we actually embrace them," says Edgers. "The idea is to find the cool stuff people do and find out why they do them." And find them he has.

So how does a person go from Arts Entertainment reporter to eating rattlesnake hearts on a TV show?

Well I made this crazy film about The Kinks that aired on PBS. I got Sting to sing with me and Zooey Daschanel is in there. A friend of mine who used to work at Travel Channel saw that movie and said, "Let’s see if this guy would be interested in TV." So they sent me to Oklahoma to film an episode and they were like, "That’s cool, let’s make a season." A year ago I was just meeting Travel Channel for lunch. Now here I am a year later and we have 13 episodes of this crazy show.

How do you find all of these unusual activities?

For the most part we have researchers. Every once in awhile I’ll throw something specific in; like the demolition derby from our Pennsylvania episode last week. There was this episode of Happy Days that I loved where they go to a demolition derby, so every time we’re in a state and I see one I say hey, what about this one here? The producers would say that it isn’t a good mix for the episode but we finally found one in Pennsylvania that was. It’s funny, when we started the series, my wife asked me how we were going to find enough things to film these episodes, but it’s not hard. You just have to be willing to go anywhere, anytime.

What is the most dangerous situation you’ve been in so far?

Alligator wrestling in our Miami episode was pretty dangerous. I was in a lobster boat race in Maine and I don’t know what the laws are on these engines but they went like 73 mph. I was sitting behind this engine that was just cooking me and thinking, there’s no reason why this engine won’t blow up in my face. But you know, I’ve got life insurance, I’ve signed my waiver. The reality is that I could get hurt just as easily riding a bike.

Has there been anything that you thought was too dangerous?

No, not really. I’m not going to jump off of a 2,000-foot bridge with no training or anything like that, but getting up on an eight-foot bike with a joust and a helmet, I think that’s part of the show. I need to embrace that and try it. I can’t think of anything that’s further from my liberal arts degree than being in an alligator pit, or entering a haggis-eating contest. I like to think of this show as Charles Kuralt meets Jackass.

What has been the hardest thing you’ve done?

I’ll tell you, I am no fan of blood. I certainly never dreamed of castrating a bull. The worst though was eating the still-beating rattlesnake heart. I’ve watched (Anthony) Bourdain eat one and that whole macho "give me that thing before it gets cold." I had that heart on the table and I’m looking at it and having this whole internal dialogue—Do I do it? Do I not do it? In the end though I take the leap because I have to.